California dreaminggg...Hotel favorites

So I'm taking a little break from the 31 days of happiness to tell you about our AMAZING trip to California! It was so relaxing & romantic and Jacob and I made so many memories!

So the 1st day, we flew into LAX - picked up our adorable little convertible and started our trek up highway 1! Had our anniversary dinner in Santa Barbara and kept driving to Monterrey. Stayed there for the night, woke up early and headed up to Sonoma via the Golden Gate bridge! Such a cool experience!

We stayed in Sonoma for 2 nights, hit one last winery and then headed to San Francisco for the night! Had such an amazing time at Fisherman's Wharf drinking Winery SF wine and craft beers, and of course eating some spicy dungeness crab! Watched the sunset over the pier and bought some super touristy San Francisco sweatshirts because it was like 50 degrees!

That morning we got up, walked through the fog along the pier to a cute little organic breakfast place we found and then headed south! Jacob was such a trooper and drove the ENTIRE way from San Francisco to Redondo Beach (south of Los Angeles) where we stayed the night and had one last romantic dinner.

Here are our favorite hotels from the trip!

Gaige House - Glen Ellen, CA: This place was PERFECT, I would even use the term magical. They were so welcoming and when they found out it was our anniversary, upgraded us to the Creekside Zen Suite! The suite was quintessential romance with a breathtaking shower, bathtub, fireplace, and enclosed Zen outside balcony. They offered a delish (and healthy!) breakfast each morning and wine & cheese tastings at the house each evening. They have games & fresh treats in the main house all day long...along with port for a nightcap! All of the little details put into this perfect B&B make it irresistibly romantic, charming and very hard to leave! It is just a hop, skip and a jump from the adorable town of Glen Ellen, 10 minutes to Sonoma, and about 30 minutes from Napa. The entire staff was so warm, friendly, and quick to offer suggestions for wineries, restaurants and other neat things to do. I couldn't be more excited that we stumbled upon this place. It made our stay in wine country so memorable! Our next trip to wine country will definitely include a stay at Gaige House!

The Portofino - Redondo Beach, CA: This stunning marina hotel (only 15 minutes from busy Los Angeles) was a fabulous end to our trip. When we checked in, they upgraded us to this amazing room right on the cove...for no reason at all!  There was fabulous live music in the lobby making it feel like the night was just beginning! We shared a bottle of wine while watching the sunset (and precious sea lions swimming in the cove!!) from our charming, private balcony. The room was so beach house chic and brought this calming, all is right with the world feeling over us. The entire staff from check-in to valet was so genuine and immediately made us feel at home. Another favorite thing about this sublime hotel was that even though we had booked through Hotels Tonight, they treated us like VIP's - the cherry on top for this young couple's anniversary trip. We enjoyed our stay so much here we'd even make a trip back to California just to spend a few extra days here!

Over the next few days I'll be going through all our favorites; hotels, wineries & restaurants. I am getting giddy thinking about our trip all over again, can't wait to go back to California!

xoxo

Amanda